1900-1901.] 6i 3 



tunities, and in that was often assisted by others in the know- 

 ledge of likely places for ferns, such as Sir Walter Scott has 

 described — 



' ' "Where the copse wood is the greenest, 

 Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest 

 There the Lady Fern grows strongest." 



Late in the fifties I was indebted to Mr. W. H. Patterson for 

 my first excursion to Stormont Glens, where I found a fine 

 form of A. F. Fcemma, the Apuceforme, which is crested like 

 a fish's tail. Also to an excursion to'Cultra Demesne, when the 

 very fine form Polys. Angular e, Decompositum, was found. 

 Both of these forms are still in my collection. 



Colin Glen was in the fifties a favourite hunting place, the 

 upper glen especially, until the trees were cut down. This was 

 an ideal place, just such as would recall the lines of Mr. Edwin 

 Lees on the Athyrium : — 



" When in splendour and beauty all Nature is crowned, 

 The fern is seen curling half hid in the ground ; 

 But of all the green hrackens that rise by the burn 

 Commend me alone to the sweet Lady Fern." 



" Polypodium indented stands stiff on the rock, 

 With his sori exposed to the tempest's rough shock ; 

 On the wild, chilly heath Aquilina stands stern 

 Not once to be named with the sweet Lady Fern." 



" Filix-mas in a circle lifts up his green fronds, 

 And the Heath Fern delights by the bogs and the ponds; 

 Through their shadowy tufts though with pleasure I turn 

 The palm must still rest with the fair Lady Fern." 



" By the fountain 1 see her just spring into sight, 

 Her texture as frail as though shivering with fright ; 

 To the water she shrinks — I can scarcely discern 

 In the deep humid shadows the soft Lady Fern." 



" Where the water is pouring for ever she sits, 

 And beside her the Ouzel, the Kingfisher flits ; 

 There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn 

 In the shade of the rock stands the tall Lady Fern." 



"Noon burns up the mountain, but here by the fall 

 The Lady Fern flourishes graceful and tall ; 

 Hours speed as thoughts, without any concern, 

 And float like the spray, gliding past the green fern." 



At an excursion to Colin Glen in 1858 with Mr. Thomas 

 Malcomson, I found a Scolopendrium with a crenated margin 



